This Berlin Apartment Defines Space Through Colour Rather Than Walls.

Bruzkus Greenberg is back with another brilliant box trick. After their Green Box Apartment basically broke the internet with its deep green joinery magic, the Berlin studio has done it again with Blue Box—a 75-square-metre rooftop flat in Prenzlauer Berg that proves they’re masters of the box-within-a-box move.

When the clients first came across the apartment, they were drawn to the way the wind moved through the space when all doors stood open. Lovely idea, except the apartment was broken up into tiny rooms with walls everywhere—including one room without a single window and a fireplace nobody wanted sitting smack in the middle of the walkway. The brief? Keep that breezy feeling, but make it actually livable.

The fix? Rip out the walls and that impractical fireplace, then drop in a dark blue joinery box as the apartment’s new heart. Partners Peter Greenberg and Ester Bruzkus, working with designer Anna Kopeina, turned one joinery element into entry, dining banquette, shelving, and stair screen. “We realised that by taking the fireplace away altogether, and screening the stairs with a shelving unit, we made the dining area become the new centre of the apartment,” Greenberg explains.

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Here’s the clever bit—the blue box sits away from the walls so you can walk around all sides. This creates an open floor plan without losing the sense of separate spaces. They also added a full-height cupboard with timber and mirrored panels that makes the apartment feel twice its size. Light blue curtains can close off the bedroom when needed or disappear completely into the joinery.

The colour work is super smart. Designer Anna Kopeina puts it simply: “The light blue brings the eye vertical; the dark blue connects the spaces horizontally.” The sky blue ceiling flows across the living room, office, and bedroom, while the dark stained millwork (stained, not painted, so you see the wood grain) keeps everything grounded. It’s colour doing heavy lifting instead of walls.

“A sense of lightness comes not only because there are no dividing walls, but because there is a contrasting dark core,” Greenberg observes. The entry experience exemplifies this—visitors arrive through a low, dark blue passage before emerging into a taller, brighter space topped by a skylight. The compressed entry amplifies the perception of volume in the main living area.

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Implementing precise planning and bold colour combinations, there is a sense of discovery around every corner in this top floor apartment in Berlin.

Custom furniture reinforces the architectural concept. The bespoke butter-yellow sofa, named “Sophia 3000” and designed specifically for this project, features modular seating with equal width and depth dimensions, allowing cylindrical roll pillows to be repositioned for sitting or reclining. “The new sofa is soft AND rigid,” says Bruzkus, describing the balance between comfort and structure. FF&E procurement by Studio Coucou features a mix of vintage pieces and contemporary designs that complement the architectural palette.v

The roof terrace serves as an additional room, featuring built-in seating and offering sweeping views across Berlin. Sky blue stairs—matching the ceiling tone—connect the interior to this outdoor space, creating a gradient from the deep blue entry through the living areas to the actual sky.

Before-and-after images reveal the transformation from a compartmentalised flat, where dining required sitting on either side of a structural column, to a sophisticated pied-à-terre, where spatial flow and colour define the experience. As Bruzkus reflects: “We love rooms within rooms, unconventional colour combinations, and contrasts of hard and soft.”

Nailed it.

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[Images courtesy of Bruzkus Greenberg. Photography by Pion Studio.]